Solis and Friends Honored

U.S. Labor Secretary Hilda Solis (pictured, right) was back in the San Gabriel Valley last week to accept an award from the San Gabriel Valley Economic Partnership and the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments.

Solis, and three others each received Jack Phillips Awards for their "outstanding contributions to the betterment of the San Gabriel Valley." The ceremony took place in the City of Industry last Thursday evening.

One of the other award winners was none other than former Claremont city manager Glenn Southard. We don't know about any betterment Southard contributed to the SGV, but ol' fellow was never shy about the betterment of Glenn Southard, at least in terms of his public compensation.

The San Gabriel Valley Tribune covered the awards ceremony and had this to say about Southard's award:

Former Claremont mayor Judy Wright gave an award to Southard, who currently serves as city manager in Indio.

A founding member of the COG, Southard worked hard in the organization's early years to make sure it got off on the right foot, Wright said.

One thing is for sure: no one worked professional networking as well as Southard (left). He and his staffs exploited these things to no end in tireless efforts to get appointed to boards of organizations like the Municipal Managment Association of Southern California or the California City Management Foundation, which Southard also helped found.

You notice, when you look at some of these groups, that there are an awful lot of municipal vendors - like engineering and law firms - that either have employees on the groups' boards or that donate money to the associations. Once on the boards of these groups, Southard and his staff would leverage those networks to do things like find a new job if they wore out their respective welcomes, as Southard did when he fled Claremont for Indio.

Southard's betterment program for the City of Indio hasn't fared well, incidentally. The desert city faces a deficit of $14 million. Southard and Indio also face a $10.5 million lawsuit by the developer of a regional transportation center, and a recent Desert Sun article indicated that Southard may be up to his old tricks, promising one thing but meaning something else with the project. Here's a hint to our friends in the Coachella Valley: Compare notes.

In any event, it won't be long before Southard wins another award for his betterment of Indio. In the meantime, he and Hilda Solis can savor their Jack Phillips Awards.

Solis Hard at Work on Job Creation

If you were curious about how Labor Secretary Hilda Solis has fared in Washington, wonder no more. The Onion ran an article about the work the Cal Poly Pomona grad is doing.

If The Onion is any guide, Solis seems to have transposed her experience in the California state legislature directly to the Obama administration. The headline read: "Department of Labor Spends $40 Billion to Create One Amazing New Job."

The Onion piece said:

WASHINGTON—In an effort to stimulate economic growth and boost the confidence of the American workforce, the federal government has allocated $40 billion to create one unbelievably mind-blowing new job, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis announced Monday.

The position, which will require the selected applicant to relocate to a sprawling, white-sand-beach facility on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands, will begin immediately after the employee is hired. In addition to a $500,000 annual salary, Solis said that the job also includes 12 weeks of paid vacation, a generous pension, bimonthly bonuses for adequate attendance totaling more than $2 million a year, a company rocket pack, and full health benefits.

Solis Nomination Clears Committee

In case you missed it, Hilda Solis, the California Congressional Representative from El Monte, had her nomination for U.S. labor secretary clear the Senate committee that had been reviewing the nomination. There had been a week-long delay in getting the matter through the committee because of some L.A. County tax problems involving Solis' husband's business.

The matter now goes to full Senate for confirmation, a vote that could come sometime today. Bloomberg News had a story on the Solis nomination:

The committee vote was postponed last week, a day after Solis’s husband, Sam Sayyad, paid about $6,400 to settle tax liens against his automobile-repair business that had been outstanding for 16 years. While Sayyad was the sole proprietor of the business, the couple filed their taxes jointly.

Solis’s accountant was unaware of the tax liens until this month, a White House spokesman, Tommy Vietor, said Feb. 5.

Solis, a California Democrat, had her nomination delayed before when Republican lawmakers said they needed time to examine her support for legislation being backed by labor unions.

As labor secretary, Solis will have to handle a push by unions for a new law, the Employee Free Choice Act, aimed at making it easier for workers to organize. Solis is a director and formerly served as treasurer for American Rights at Work, a pro- union group lobbying for the bill. She also was a co-sponsor on the measure last year.

Here is a nice picture of Solis and her husband Sam Sayyad. Nice break on the cuffs.

Sometimes things are exactly as they appear.

Senate Delays Vote on Solis

Bad news for Congresswoman Hilda Solis (right), President Barack Obama's nominee for U.S. Secretary of Labor. USA Today reported on a small, 16-year-old L.A County tax problem Solis' husband Sam Sayyad had until he took care of it on Wednesday - two days before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee's scheduled confirmation vote and one day after USA Today posed questions about the issue to Sayyad.

Here's what USA Today said:

WASHINGTON — The confirmation of another Cabinet member stalled Thursday because of unpaid taxes after USA TODAY disclosed that the husband of Labor secretary nominee Hilda Solis paid about $6,400 this week to settle numerous tax liens against his business dating to 1993.

Solis and her husband, Sam Sayyad, were unaware of liens against his auto repair shop until USA TODAY asked about them Tuesday, White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said Thursday. Vietor said Sayyad went to the Los Angeles County tax office and paid what he was told he owed — about $6,400 — to settle outstanding liens.

Sayyad plans to appeal, Vietor said. Anthony Yakimowich, chief deputy treasurer and tax collector for Los Angeles County, said his office notifies delinquent taxpayers by mail.

Disclosure of the long-unpaid taxes prompted the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee on Thursday to abruptly cancel a scheduled vote on Solis' nomination. The committee wants the administration to review the matter and report back, said Anthony Coley, spokesman for Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the committee's chairman.

The article went on to quote White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who said that the problems were Sayyad's, not Solis', so Solis should not be penalized. In any event, Solis' Senate committee vote has been postponed indefinitely until the matter can be sorted out.

Gary Scott also noted Solis' problems and remarked that there could be a ripple effect if Solis is unable to take the labor secretary position.

Solis' Claremont protégé Councilmember Sam Pedroza (left) may have been premature in celebrating his patroness' ascendancy to President Obama's cabinet. No doubt, the issue may not be serious enough to derail Solis' nomination, but it might have been more seemly if Sam could have at least waited until after the Senate approved the nomination before he started partying.

But then what do we know?

Huge Surprise: Xavier Alvarez Pleads "Not Guilty"

click on image to enlarge

Yesterday, Thursday, Xavier Alvarez was finally arraigned in Superior Court. Wes Woods at the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin reported the proceeding. It seems the cat's got Xavier's tongue, as Woods reports that Alvarez "wouldn't answer and just kept looking to the left, right, or downward."

The Court set February 24, 2009, for the preliminary hearing.

It seems to us here at the Insider that ol' Xavier is trying to run the clock, knowing that until more happens with this felony charge that he retains his seat on the Three Valleys Municipal Water District board.

Or maybe Norma Torres is trying to get him a position on a state board somewhere. You know how these things work: Multi-level marketing meets the Peter Principle.

Or maybe Hilda Solis will take him to Washington with her--if she doesn't take Sam Pedroza with her.

By the way, look what happens when you google "Xavier Alvarez..." Google shows that there are 1,500,000 references to him on the web. Truly a man smiled upon by fame if not by fortune.

Hilda Solis of El Monte Tabbed to be US Labor Secretary

Hilda Solis, Congresswoman from the 32nd District in the San Gabriel Valley, has been named nominee by President-elect Barack Obama to be the next Secretary of Labor.

There's a local angle to this story. Claremont City Councilmember Sam Pedroza owes his political career to Solis. Pedroza, who worked for Solis, rose within the ranks of the San Gabriel Valley Democratic Party partly as a result of Solis' patronage.

That relationship with Solis is what landed Pedroza in the hot seat as the person spearheading the effort by the San Gabriel and Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy (RMC) to build the controversial $30 million Discovery Center on the San Gabriel River in Whittier. While she was still in the State Senate, Solis sponsored the legislation that created the RMC.

The irony of the Discovery Center project is that opponents say construction of the proposed interpretive nature center will end up destroying much of what it is supposed it pay homage to. And, as we've noted previously, we suspect that Pedroza's ties to the RMC are what led the agency to funnel $850,000 in grant money that was supposed to go to park projects in underserved urban areas to Claremont's Padua Park, another habitat-destroying project sponsored by the conservancy.

Just another example of the power of patronage.

Labor Secretary-select Solis graduated from Cal Poly Pomona, worked in the Carter White House, and has been elected to the Rio Hondo Community College District, the State Assembly and Senate, and is serving her fourth term in Congress. Whew. Makes you wonder what you have been doing with your life.

Still, we did note that with all that star quality, Solis lives, according to her official biography, in humble El Monte. Here's a little description of our neighbor town to the west:

Gold Lining

In other transportation news, Congressman David Dreier, an alum of Claremont McKenna College and Claremont Graduate University, recently sat down with three Democratic counterparts representing cities with an interest in the Gold Line Foothill Extension.

The four, Dreier, plus Reps. Adam Schiff, Grace Napolitano, and Hilda Solis (Claremont City Councilmember Sam Pedroza's political patron), got together for a 25-minute video roundtable in which they talk about why the Gold Line is a great project deserving of better treatment from the LA County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA).

The video, with the title "Special Congressional Report," comes from Rep. David Dreier, Rep. Grace Napolitano, Rep. Adam Schiff and Rep. Hilda Solis. The Los Angeles Times' Steve Hymon had a post about the video on his Bottleneck Blog. Hymon reports that the show, which was apparently made for cable TV, probably isn't an off-the-cuff conversation moderated by an independent host:

The show features the four of them sitting around in a circle being asked questions by a moderator named Jo Maney. Here is her first hardball question, addressed to Dreier:

"Can you tell us a little bit about the Gold Line Foothill Extension and how it will help reduce traffic congestion and save energy?"

Maney then goes on to forget to tell viewers a crucial detail: she happens to work for the guy she's interviewing. Maney is Dreier's press secretary.

Centinel over at the FC Blog also wrote about the video in a post (with apologies to the 1994 Arkansas Razorback basketball team) called "25 Minutes of Hell."

Gold Line's Future Tied to Sales Tax Approval

Friday's Los Angeles Times carried a front-page story about the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority's (MTA) decision to pursue passage of a half-cent sales tax increase for LA County. Money from the proposed measure would go to fund transportation projects throughout the county, including the Gold Line Foothill Extension from Pasadena to Claremont. The measure will be placed on the November ballot, assuming it is approved by the state legislature.

Back in June, the MTA board decided to put off until the November election the decision on whether to include the Gold Line Foothill Extension in the agency's Long Range Transportation Plan. That decision not only cost the Gold Line $80 million in LA County money, but also may have cost the Foothill Extension $320 million in federal grants that were dependent on the county funds as a match.

The sales tax increase is being pushed by Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who is the MTA board's chair. The increase would raise the county sales tax from the current 8.25% to 8.75%, which would tie LA County for the highest sales tax rate in the state along with Alameda County. Estimates are that the half-cent increase would generate up to $40 billion over 30 years.

The MTA board approved going forward with the sales tax measure on a 9-2 vote, with the only "NO's" being the two San Gabriel Valley representatives, LA County Supervisor Michael Antonovich and Duarte Councilmember John Fasana.

Antonovich and Fasana objected to the fact that the MTA board would not commit to making a solid pledge of $735 million to the Gold Line. The sales tax measure allocates that amount, but there are no guarantees that the money could not be moved to other projects, such as the Expo Line Extension to Santa Monica, which has been competing with the Gold Line for MTA funds. The measure only promises a minimum of $325 million to the Gold Line and indicates that an additional $400 is available.

LA County Supervisor Gloria Molina abstained from voting, citing her concerns with the haste with which the allocation of the money was decided.

Supervisor Antonovich has raised his own concerns with the sales tax measure, saying that the way the MTA has allocated money has been too LA-centric and that areas like the San Gabriel Valley have not received their fair share of transportation funds. Antonovich's reservations played into his refusal to support the sales tax measure, and the MTA board's reluctance to commit the total $735 million to the Gold Line Foothill Extension make us wonder if there isn't a Villaraigosa sponsored bait-and-switch going on here.

Villarairgosa's sale tax needs a two-thirds majority to pass, so he needs every San Gabriel Valley vote he can get. We vote to support this tax increase with the carrot of $735 million dangling in front of us, then once the measure is passed, they pull that $400 million and give it to the Expo Line Extension or some other LA project. At least that seems to be the sort of scenario that troubles Antonovich.

Saturday's LA Times had yet another front-page article on the proposed sales tax increase. The article reported that passage of the measure is no sure thing with voters having to approve a number of other state and local tax increases on the same November ballot. The article also reported that four members of California's congressional delegation - David Drier (R-26), Gary Miller (R-42), Grace Napolitano (D-38), and Hilda Solis (D-32) - have issued a joint statement that supports giving more of the sales tax money to the San Gabriel Valley.

The text of the statement is available on the LA Times' Bottleneck Blog, and seems to echo Supervisor Antonovich's concerns about the equity with which the MTA transportation funds are being dispersed. According to Times blogger Steve Hymon, Congresswoman Solis has indicated she may actively campaign against the sales tax measure. Judging from the statement's language, Solis and the other three representatives who signed the statement certainly feel strongly that the MTA is sticking it once again to our area:

If inequity and insult aren’t enough, Metro Board Members said no to a commitment of less than one half of one percent of its capital budget for the only project ready to be built in LA County – the Gold Line Foothill Extension. This project could save our residents money – households that use public transit save an average of $6,251 every year. It could create jobs - every $1 spent on infrastructure results in a gain of $6 in jobs. Construction alone could create at least 2,000 new jobs. It could deliver needed economic development – more than $40 billion by 2030.

The Federal government has stood up and done its part to demonstrate support – our local Congressional delegation has already delivered $27.19 million. If Metro would commit its share, we could fight for an additional $320 million in Federal funds. Rather than join us, Metro said no to the San Gabriel Valley.

“Residents of the San Gabriel Valley deserve better than what Metro delivered yesterday. It’s time to say no to inequity, no to insult, and yes to economic development in the San Gabriel Valley. It’s time to say no to Metro.